Are We Financially Prepared for the Future?

Are We Financially Prepared for the Future?

Money can be tight no matter where we live, and in many cases, it feels like we spend our cash before we earn it. And as a consequence, planning for the future can be a struggle. In fact, global respondents say they’re only saving or investing about 10 percent of their monthly income.

“There’s always tomorrow” is a far more common sentiment among global respondents in terms of planning to save or invest to meet financial goals in the future than sentiment about actively saving or investing now. Across 14 saving goals reviewed, respondents’ intentions to save in the future were stronger than active intentions for all but one financial goal—saving for health-related issues. In terms of this goal, global active savers outnumbered future savers by just 1 percentage point (42% active savers vs. 41% future savers).

“Preparing for one’s financial future has implications that go beyond personal needs,” said Oliver Rust, senior vice president, Global Financial Services, Nielsen. “Particularly in mature economies, there are growing concerns about reliance on governments to support expenses such as retirement, health care and education as growing numbers of the population enters retirement age. Understanding consumer sentiment on the saving strategies used to fund financial goals now and in the future provides insight to help close the gap between reality and expectations.”

The Gap Between Financial Reality and Expectations

Given the breadth of needs that pull at our wallets, financial planning for the future isn’t always a top action item for global consumers—even though saving and investment sentiment is relatively strong. So the reality is that there is a sizeable gap between sentiment and action, and closing that gap depends on a variety of factors, least of which is earning enough money to stash cash. Either way, both scenarios have economic consequences to consider.

Global consumer confidence increased modestly in 2016, a time of great political and economic change around the world, rising three points between the first and fourth quarters to 101. Confidence scores finished the year more strongly than they began in every region except Africa/Middle East.